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Topic: Other Issues (Read 2370 times)

From time to time chatters may be warned for various behaviors not specified in the AUP. While we try to cover most disallowed issues in the AUP, sometimes it becomes necessary to highly moderate other unspecified behavior, usually because such continued behavior can quickly become negatively disruptive in the channel. Some of the recent issues that fall into this category are as follows:

Harassing or insulting other chatters for behavior on another network (if it didn't happen here, don't bring it here, please).Posting links to sexual or otherwise inappropriate videos/websites (this is not a sex network).Repeatedly complaining about another network to the point that it becomes annoying (moderators have discretion on this).Posting false negative information about other chatters (this can be considered harassment).Posting your "clone scanner", "seenas" or "other nicknames used" info into the room to point out a chatter has previously used one or more other nicknames (This usually appears to be in a harassing manner. Please note, such info is not always reliable and may not always pertain to the same chatter).Posting someone's personal or allegedly personal information into the channel (such as real name, address, phone numbers, or other personal situation information).Repeatedly posting your own personal information (this is for your protection).Posting logs of private conversations (if it was private, it was probably not intended to be made public, and if you don't want to read it in your private, please take action to block the other party from sending you private messages, or do not respond to them).

Some elements of these issues are filtered by the various systems of the network. Most will often be dependent on the actions of the moderator if there is an active moderator in the room, or if there is an IrcOp or Admin who sees the offense. Actions for these issues may range from channel warnings, kicks and bans to network bans.

If the same chatter is known for repeating the same type of misbehavior, having been warned on several occasions for it, they may banned without warning.

While most of the network-administered chatrooms on ICQ-Chat are generally open to most topics, there are some topics that are either specified as inappropriate for the network, or may be considered inappropriate or considered to be channel disruption issues in some rooms for various reasons, or at various times. The channel moderators (Channel Operators, or ChanOps) have jurisdiction over this, although there are some guidelines that they can refer to. Some of these guidelines include:

1. Since "Religious" and "Political" discussions often tend to provoke heated discourse, we have particular rooms set aside for such discussions, and therefore such discussions tend to be discouraged in the main channels such as #chat. Too often, such subjects tend to be brought up with the intention of provoking the room to animosity, and therefore such discussions are usually asked to be moved to the more appropriate channels where those interested parties may discuss them without annoying those who are not interested in being in the middle of such discussions.

2. "nonsense" or "gibberish" posts - If a user appears to be talking to their self, posting on something as if they are conversing in a one-sided conversation, where no one is responding, but they continue to seem to carry on a conversation, or if they are just posting nonsense or "gibberish" (posting characters that do not appear to be any particular language or make no sentence sense), this can reach a point where it begins to annoy other chatters and disrupt the room.

3. Typing or pasting long passages from any source - If conversation is flowing in the room, such posts or copy-pasted info can disrupt the flow of chat, and can appear to be a type of flooding. In addition, long passages, whether typed out or pasted to the room, are subject to being truncated by the character limit of posts, and therefore get "chopped", which can be frustrating to anyone who actually bothers to try to read a long passage. Most chatters seem to find it annoying to try to keep up with reading long or multiple lengthy postings anyway. This can be considered a channel disruption or a flood. Depending on the situation, the channel bots may even kick or ban for it, if they pick it up as "flooding".

4. Posting song lyrics or poetry verses - If conversation is flowing in the room, such posts or copy-pasted info can disrupt the flow of chat, and can appear to be a type of flooding. Also, often when a chatter posts lyrics or poetry verses, they tend to do so line by line, which tends to make for annoying reading anyway, in the same manner as if someone types a sentence with one word per line. This may not be much of an issue in a quiet room, or on occasion, or if the passage is short, but in a busy room, it can be somewhat disruptive, especially if it occurs repeatedly.

These are Guidelines, not set rules. ChanOps do not have to always take action on them if they do not feel the issue is disrupting the room. Some of these issues, such as Religious and Political topics, will be acted upon most of the time, while others may not be necessary to address often. But please respect the Channel Moderator. We have plenty of other rooms that you can invite others to join you in if you wish to carry on a conversation that you have been requested to move to another room with.

After some chatter complaints and some investigation, Admins have decided to disallow the use of "Parent" ("dad"and "mom") type nicknames in the Network Channels. This means that nicknames that include these types of words may now be asked to change their nicknames in the network channels. [This includes Dad, Daddy, Father, Mom, Mother, Mommy, etc.]

It is the responsibility of the active ChanOp and IrcOps to determine if such a nickname falls under this rule, as there may occasionally be some exceptions. ChanOps have been informed of these guidelines.